I'd estimate that the VAST majority of those who come to your front door (whether guests or deliverymen or your family) will be coming from a vehicle parked in your driveway. If you don't put a planned walkway between those points, they'll create one anyway, most likely through your landscaping and across your grass.

Check your city code too. We found out that the city we're building in likes to have connectivity from a front door to the sidewalk.

Consider locating a bench halfway between the drive and the front door for those that need a rest on their hike.

🤣

Can you have two curb cuts so that a driveway can pass in front of the front door, and connect to the drive going to the garage?

People walk down our driveway then head down the path to front door. Our house isn’t nearly as expansive as yours but I like the front yard without interruption

To create a positive street presence like what’s seen in traditional neighborhoods, I think that you need both combined with a good, professional landscaping plan. Your 65’ setback presents a great opportunity for the front yard to engage with the streetscape instead being just a long, uninteresting walk to get to the front door; otherwise, like what @jkent9024 said, if you don't put a path from the street, then your visitors (e.g., the mailman, amazon, and other people looking for an efficient path ) will create one for you.

@Patrick A: I like that idea. Would you do it like the picture I commented above? We’re doing landscaping this fall, so we will integrate the walkway and driveway into the landscape plan. That may be backwards from what’s done traditionally, but it’s how it has worked out.

@bpath: The left side of our lot slopes down a bit, so I’m not sure that would work. I’ll look for examples of what you’ve described though.

I’m not sure the sloping prevents a driveway from having two curb cuts.

@Ashley K wrote, Would you do it like the picture I commented above?

Response: Let's be clear, I have no idea and think it'd be tough for anyone who has not visited your site to come up with a solution which must consider architecture, the lot, the streetscape and the how it all fits within your neighborhood. That's why I suggested a professional. Pay for a good design upfront and if money is tight, then you complete the plan in stages, but start with a professional plan. Pros come up with solutions that you'd never think of.

With regard to the paths to your main entrance, I just think it's important that homes have direct access from the street to the main entrance so that your home has an inviting face. You could also conceivably create a front, low-walled courtyard that allows for a gradually transition from the street, through a courtyard to the front entrance. The best advice I can offer is for you to hire a professional.

In my build (which is still early in the design phase), I'm planning two primary entrances from the motor court: (1) a service entrance that's close to the garage and enters directly into the scullery/pantry area and (2) a second entrance for guests. Here's an excerpt from the plan showing the primary entrances.

This is probably more thought than you asked for, but I was bored.

Patrick aren’t both in your case from the driveway though?

Yeah, you're right. It has been a long day. I was thinking about my other project when I wrote the post which better illustrates what my point:

Where will your mailbox be located? Are there sidewalks in your plan? My mailbox is located at the end of the driveway and my mail carrier is in a truck so a street entrance is not necessary.

I like your idea of doing both -- a connector from your drive to your front door, and a connector from your front door to the street. Have some compassion for all the delivery people who need to drop packages at your door quickly and efficiently. Make their path level, short, straight, and barrier free :-)

@nickel_kg That’s what I’m trying to do. We get way too many Amazon packages every week. Haha I know the delivery drivers will walk straight through the grass to the front door if we don’t have a walkway. That’s what they did at our last house at least.

I think we’ll do a concrete walkway from street to door with a paver path from driveway to door. I’ve asked a professional landscaper for a preliminary landscape design to include that. 🙂

@ratherbesewing The mailbox will be next to the driveway on the left side. There are sidewalks but they’re not included on this plan for some reason.

Our sidewalk comes from the driveway but closerto the house. I like the low landscape along the walkway. Where will visitors park? Our delivery folks walk down the driveway, sometimes leaving packages at the corner of the garage.

The house is off of a wide street so guests will likely park in front of the house on the street or in the driveway.

Consider this concept:

Is a semi-circular driveway under consideration?

Thank you both for putting so much effort into this. I hadn’t really considered that, but I think it could work.

Mark’s and DigDoug’s suggestions are what you need. I would add a walkway from the garage area to the front walk, you’d be surprised how often you need to get from one to the other and don’t want to walk around the landscaping. Even a stepping stone path through the landscaping would be nice.

I"m going to disagree with many here. I will vote for a sidewalk connection every time. Why emphasize space designed for vehicles instead of humans? Why not encourage pedestrians over cars? Driveways are often littered with cars, basketball hoops, toys, construction vehicles and garbage cans, which visitors must navigate around. Pathways say "welcome to my home, please come in". Driveways are utilitarian. Pathways are neighborly.

Breaking up the front yard with a pathway could be a good thing, not a problem. You can use a pathway (or two or three) to create planting and/or sitting areas. It will add much more interest to your home than a large expanse of lawn. Please think about it -- this is a good opportunity to take your beautiful new home to another level. The suggestion to hire a designer ASAP is a good one.

P.S. I'm very good at spending other people's money, I realize. =\ Good luck in your new home.

IS there a sidewalk? What direction will people and the delivery guy usually come from? That all matters. If you don’t do a ”circle” (and some communities don’t allow the second cutout), I might do something like this:

Curved, because while the straight lines look nice they are a pain to travel. and a widening at the drive to accommodate people walking up from the street. and a stepping stone path from the garage.

We’ve narrowed it down to these three options. We’re waiting for the final drawings from the landscape architect, but we will likely have to do the driveway and walkway before we have the final landscape drawings.

Incorporate the walkway with all the other landscaping elements as an integrated whole, not in a walkway vacuum.

If your neighborhood has sidewalks, connect your home to the sidewalk. However, you might not be able to run your sidewalk across the “tree lawn” (aka the “Devil’s Strip” in my part of the country!) to the street. That might require permission from your city or community. An additional paved sidewalk from your front door to your driveway. And beautiful landscape to soften it, and give both paths a purpose. Actually, the suggestion to introduce a small flagstone patio with a bench where your two sidewalks meet would be lovely! A place for potted plants, a boxwood hedge, etc. Make your paths purposeful and beautiful! Your home is lovely!

Are there sidewalks?

Of the options you've posted, #1 is the best. But @bpath's curved walk from driveway is better than all of them.

Yes we will be adding the sidewalk to connect our lot to our neighbors’.

One philosophy I have seen used is to not put in any walkway or drive ways at all; then after a period of time pave the most common areas where cars have driven and people walked. When planning circulation, remember the shortest distance between two points is a straight line; and people like walking short distances.

Based on everyone’s feedback, we’re going to do the driveway and sidewalk now and wait on the walkway(s). We want to tie it into the landscape like most of you said. Our HOA requires that the driveway and sidewalk be in before we can close on the house, so that’s why there was such a rush to get this done, but they don’t say anything about walkways.